California History: The Hidden Genocide

The Shasta Nation, which Norma Jean belongs to, made a treaty in
1851 with the United States government. This treaty was never
ratified by Congress, but the Indian people were led to believe it
was an honorable agreement. To celebrate the signing of this
treaty, the Indian people were invited to a feast at Fort Jones.
The meat was laced with strychnine and 4,000 Indian people died
there.

First gold, then land drew the world to California. Some of the
best, but many of the worst, swept into this fruitful country with
their picks and their plows destroying the welcoming Indian people
in their path. From 1850-1890, disease and murder reduced the
indigenous people by 94%. Local bands of citizen "volunteers-
" roamed the countryside killing Indian families, winning
praise from their fellow citizens and payment from the state.

For $3 and a little paperwork, "citizens" could
indenture any Indian for 25 years. "Citizens" received
from 50 cents to $5 per Indian scalp. The state of California paid
out over a million dollars for scalps.

From the early 1900's, Indian children were removed from their
families and sent to boarding schools to be stripped of their
culture and prepared for menial jobs at the bottom of the economic
ladder. All these are acts of genocide, as defined by international
law.

The re-emergence of Indian self-respect in the last 25 years has
led to direct confrontations with the U.S. government and cor-
porations over control of Indian lands and peoples. This has
manifested itself in California through such acts as:

The Alcatraz occupation by Indians of All Tribes, 1969; the ongoing
Pitt River reservation struggle; the Klamath fishing wars; the
founding of D-Q University; the Toyon Wintu sawmill struggle; and
the ongoing struggle for federal recognition by many California
tribes.

The vast ancestral lands are now reduced to small dots on the
map. The treaties have never been honored and recently the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in the Gasket-Orleans (G-O) Road decision that
Indian people have no right to practice and exercise their
indigenous religion.

The courts have been and continue to be a violent weapon against
Indian people, "legally" authorizing theft of land and
resources; imprisoning leaders of Indian struggle, and inflicting
upon Indian people the highest arrest rate, conviction rate,
severity of sentence and average length of time served of any group
of people.

If you want to learn more about the history and current struggles for recognition of California's surviving Indian tribes, the Web pages sponsored by the Costanoan-Ohlone tribe are an excellent source:

--One of the most informative, well-designed native web pages. The staff and the tribal people have been seeking federal recognition for many small Calfornia tribes. There are 43 linked pages, innovative features such as on-line graphs Water rights, historical documents, a virtual lodge with drum-songs, downloadable software. Lots of variety, and a great publication. Nice feature: people involved in the struggle, people who write reports, people doing production work on the Web page, are pictured, with short bios. Mohawk editor Russ Imrie created these pages, drawing on a previous 3-year gopher-stored version of text materials.

CREDITS: The California Treaties material was gathered by investigators working for Patrick's and Norma Jean's lawyers, and used to support both Patrick's successful change of Venue motion and in Patrick's second successful trial.